publications

Nearly 80 years ago, Erwin Schrödinger used the physics of the day to try to understand the origins of life. In this article, Stephon Alexander and Salvador Moreno try to do the same with modern science. The ideas and paradigms unveiled in this article should leave us wondering: do we live in a cosmic biosphere or is the universe a cosmic cell?

In the blink of an eye, our world can be turned upside down by the appearance of a new pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These devastating events are not something new to humanity, and, unfortunately for those of us trying to forecast them, they do not typically occur in a slow and predictable fashion: Harmless organisms can undergo quantum leaps in evolution to become deadly and then spread like wildfire. Most diseases caused by bacteria or viruses began with an innocuous ancestor but evolved to become some of humanity’s worst scourges.

Pathogen emergence (PE) is a complex phenomenon with major public health implications. Here, we highlight the diverse molecular and environmental drivers associated with PE providing a more coherent picture of this process. Over the past decades, numerous underlying mechanisms facilitating the emergence of pathogenic bacteria have been elucidated. Given the interactive and multifactorial nature of PE, we contend that the development of approaches that embrace the integration of these factors is indispensable to truly comprehend this complex phenomenon and develop strategies to mitigate this threat.